The Church dedicates the whole month of November to pray for the dead, with a special emphasis on November 2, All Souls Day.

Who are we praying for?

Well, I usually pray for my family and try to include those great-great- . . . grandparents whose names and lives I do not know.

Those in Purgatory — and I expect that includes some of my family members — benefit from our prayers, especially the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

The poor souls in Purgatory have died in the grace of God, but still have some suffering to undergo for the sins they committed during their lives on earth before entering Heaven.

Purgatory exists

Christians have believed in Purgatory from the beginning, but Martin Luther and other Protestants challenged that belief.

So just to be clear: The existence of Purgatory is a truth of the Catholic faith, and is affirmed by Scripture, the Fathers of the Church, the saints, and ecumenical councils including Trent and Vatican II.

In Scripture, Catholics can read about Judas Maccabeus, who “made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin” (2 Maccabees 12:45).

Our protestant brothers and sisters, sadly, omit the books of Maccabees from their Bibles.

But they do have St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, which St. Augustine refers to when he teaches, “though we should be ‘saved by fire,’ (cf. 1 Cor 3:15) yet will that fire be more grievous than anything that man can suffer in this life whatsoever.”

St. Thomas Aquinas teaches, “The suffrages [i.e., prayers, sufferings, indulgences] of the living, without any doubt, profit those who are in Purgatory.”

And in its decree on Purgatory, the Council of Trent addressed certain errors that became widespread with the Reformation, affirming that “Purgatory exists, and the souls detained there are helped by the acts of intercession of the faithful, and especially by the acceptable sacrifice of the altar.”

The states of the Church

The Church exists in three “states” or conditions: The Church Militant (or the pilgrim Church) refers to those of the baptized who are alive on earth now, battling to overcome sin on our journey to Heaven.

The Church Triumphant is the communion of saints in Heaven, canonized or not.

The Church Suffering (or the Church Penitent) refers to the souls in Purgatory.

This division emphasizes the unity of the Church — all of us who are together in Christ.

The saints in Heaven do not need our prayers. Those who are in Hell cannot be helped by our prayers.

But there are many ways we can assist those in Purgatory: we can offer our bodily pains in expiation for their sins; we can offer spiritual sufferings like disappointments and fears; we can offer vocal prayers like the Rosary and the “Eternal Rest” prayer, and we can offer chosen mortifications like fasting or unpleasant work.

Prayers for November

There are a number of traditional prayers that are especially suited to November.

There are liturgical prayers, like the Office for the Dead, and various litanies – the Litany of the Faithful Departed, and the Litany for the Poor Souls in Purgatory are both appropriate at this time.

A common addition to the blessing said before meals is:

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

The Prayer of St. Gertrude is another good one:

Eternal Father, I offer Thee the most Precious Blood of Jesus, with all the Masses being said all over the world this day, for the Souls in Purgatory.

This is short enough that it can be memorized and said many times each day.

Now, you can find extraordinary claims made for this prayer like “saying it once releases one thousand souls from Purgatory.”

Don’t believe that — such promises made for any prayer don’t really make sense, and have been formally rejected as false by the Holy See under Pope Leo XIII.

It seems that there was a rash of prayer-efficacy-inflation in the 19th century, and some of that still circulates through pious websites, pamphlets, and prayer cards.

There are ways that we can be sure that our prayers and good works ease the suffering of those in Purgatory, but it’s a bit harder than just saying St. Gertrude’s beautiful and short prayer.

Indulgence extended beyond the octave of All Saints

Another way we can help the poor souls is by gaining an indulgence for them.

A plenary indulgence is a full remission of temporal suffering and can be sought for yourself or another. We can think of indulgences as having two parts: the indulgenced act, and the normal #conditions. The normal conditions for all indulgences are: sacramental Confession, Eucharistic Communion, full detachment from sin, and prayer for the pope’s intentions within 20 days before or after the indulgenced act.

In November, there are two indulgenced acts for the benefit of a soul in Purgatory.

One is to visit a church or oratory on All Souls Day and pray the “Our Father” and the Creed.

The other, normally available during the octave of All Saints (November 1 to 8), is for visiting a cemetery and praying for the dead there.

This year, given the disruption to regular worship caused by the pandemic, the Vatican has extended this indulgence for the whole month of November.

Visiting the cemetery after receiving Communion at Mass on Sunday and saying a prayer there for the dead gets you pretty close to fulfilling all the conditions.

All that’s left is to pray for the intentions of the pope, get to Confession, and be detached from sin!